June 19, 2011
Gates Acknowledges Talks with Taliban
By GINGER THOMPSON
WASHINGTON -- Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates acknowledged on Sunday that the United States had begun preliminary talks with members of the Taliban as part of an effort to end the war in Afghanistan.
But as he pressed his case against withdrawing a significant number of American troops from the region this year, he said that he did not believe the negotiations would produce any positive results unless the Taliban continued to feel military pressure through the end of the year.
In an appearance on CNN's "State of the Union," Mr. Gates cautioned that the talks were in such early stages -- having begun a few weeks ago -- that officials were still uncertain the Taliban participants were genuine representatives of the Taliban leader Mullah Omar. He said the effort was being carried out by American diplomats but did not directly involve the secretary of state, Hillary Rodham Clinton. And he said several other countries were participating, though he did not specify which ones.
"We have said all along that a political outcome is the way most of the wars end," Mr. Gates said. "The question is when and if they are ready to talk seriously."
Referring to his concerns about drawing down too many American troops this summer, he added, "Real reconciliation talks are not likely to be able to make substantive headway until at least this winter. I think the Taliban have to feel themselves under military pressure and begin to believe they can't win before they are willing to have a serious conversation."
Mr. Gates appeared on at least two Sunday morning programs as part of a final media tour before he leaves his post after having served under eight presidents over 40 years in government, including overseeing two wars and the recent airstrikes over Libya. In his comments, Mr. Gates said he understood the pressure by a war-weary, economically distressed nation to withdraw from Afghanistan.
However, he argued that it had been only in the last two years that the United States began committing sufficient resources to its fight there and made significant progress, pushing the Taliban out of its strongholds in Kandahar and Helmand, and killing the Al Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden. Those gains could be lost, he said, if the United States were to withdraw its troops prematurely.
"I know the American people are tired of war," Mr. Gates said on CNN. "But, look, the reality is the United States had a very limited commitment in Afghanistan until well into 2008. And we did not have the right strategy and the right resources for this conflict, those needed to do the job, until the late summer of 2010."
As for withdrawal from Iraq, a war Mr. Gates said would "always be clouded by the way it began," he said the United States had begun talking with Iraq about keeping a "limited number" of troops there beyond the end of the year to do training, oversee equipment and conduct counterterrorism operations. He did not give a specific number for how many troops might be needed except to say it would likely be a "fraction" of the 47,000 troops there now.
On "Fox News Sunday," Mr. Gates defended President Obama's decision to deploy American military power to establish a no-fly zone over Libya without seeking congressional approval, echoing the White House's view that it did not violate the War Powers Act because the government was not engaged in "hostilities."
Mr. Gates described the United States' role in Libya as a "limited kinetic operation." And referring to Mr. Obama, he said, "I'm confident that he would not make judgments along these lines if he were not confident that he was acting in a constitutional manner."
The Sunday talk shows also offered a preview of how the debate over Libya may play out in Congress, where President Obama may face criticism from some of his closest allies, including Senator Richard J. Durbin of Illinois. In an appearance on NBC's "Meet the Press," Mr. Durbin said he would not support proposed measures to defund military operations in Libya. But he strongly rejected White House arguments that the United States air support to NATO did not amount to direct engagement in hostilities, and therefore did not require congressional approval.
"Hostilities by remote control are still hostilities," Mr. Durbin said. "We are killing with drones what we would otherwise be killing with fighter planes. What we should do is act on a timely basis to pass congressional authorization under the War Powers Act."
Senator Lindsey Graham , a Republican from South Carolina, pushed back against those in his party who have said that the United States has no strategic interests to justify its military campaign in Libya. At one point, Senator Graham said that the legislative debate over American involvement had encouraged the Libyan leader Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi, and Mr. Graham said, "Congress should sort of shut up."
Referring to Mr. Qaddafi, Mr. Durbin said, "If we fail against Qaddafi, that's the end of NATO. Egypt is going to be overrun, and the 'mad dog of the Middle East,' as Ronald Reagan called Qaddafi, if he survives, you're going to have double the price of oil that you do today."
On ABC's "This Week with Christiane Amanpour," Senator John McCain said he and Senator John Kerry were prepared to introduce a measure this week that would cover the United States fighting in Libya.
"If we had not intervened, Qaddafi was at the gates of Benghazi," Senator McCain said. "He said he was going to go house to house to kill everybody. That's a city of 700,000 people. What would be saying now if we had allowed for that to happen?'